


Exigency

by micehell



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: AU (they're the replicated versions and they managed to survive), Drama, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-01-22
Updated: 2008-01-22
Packaged: 2017-11-12 04:10:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/486532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/micehell/pseuds/micehell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He'd been waiting for just over a year to see what revenge John would come up with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Exigency

**Author's Note:**

> Part of my Ex- collection of stories, but not strictly Rodney/John. These are the replicated versions of our heroes from BAMSF, but AU, because you have to believe they either weren't really killed, or that there are other versions of them (sort of like the whole thing with Elizabeth might potentially go). You also have to believe that John turned 40 before _Progeny_ (especially since this is sort of a sequel to John's 40th bday fic, which is [Exceptions](http://archiveofourown.org/works/486537)).

Forty years wasn't much time for a life. Not really. It was just the start of it.

Or the end of it.

Rodney sat on his bed, remembering sharing one with John. Remembering slow kisses as John unwrapped him like a gift. Eyes that shifted from green to brown as pupils dilated with arousal, that widened when Rodney pressed inside.

Of course he also remembered being kicked out of the bed because he'd made one little joke about John's age, but even that was a sweet memory now, and Rodney hated it. He didn't want sweetness. He didn't want to remember. He just wanted John back.

He'd been waiting for just over a year to see what revenge John would come up with for Rodney's birthday. He'd been waiting, and all it had taken was one stupid moment of inattention, one fucking piece of malfunctioning equipment, and the wait was over. Everything was over.

They'd all agreed, of course. That it was bad enough that they couldn't have the lives they were meant to because of what they were, they weren't going to compound it by continuing someone else's mistakes. John had agreed most of all, and Rodney had to respect that decision the same way he'd respected the man.

But as much as Rodney had respected John, he loved him more. And he'd be damned if he'd let a little thing like John's stupidly mistaken wishes get in the way of that.

Elizabeth smiled at him when he walked unannounced into here office, but it was touched by the sorrow they all shared. "I'm really surprised it took you this long. I'd expected you this morning."

This threw Rodney a little, because he'd been expecting to have to explain the whole thing, but then he'd always been quick to adapt to change. Well, mostly, anyway. "Then you'll do it. You'll make him again."

But she shook her head. "Rodney, we've discussed this. You know he didn't want it."

And, yes, Rodney knew, and he also knew he was being selfish, but, "I don't care. I don't care, and I don't care. All I care about is that my life was stolen from me by _me_ , or at least a version of me, and I can't ever have it back, because however selfish people might think I am, I'm not so selfish that I'd steal it back. Which, yes, is a very convoluted way to say it, but I don't care about that either. All I have left is here and now, and I'm going to hold onto that, even if I have to tear the heaven's down."

He winced at his own melodrama, and the fact that he couldn't communicate the absolute conviction that he had in his mind, that sense of the rightness of what he wanted. All he could give her was, "I lost everything else simply by being born. I won't lose him as well."

She had tears in her eyes, but she was too strong to let them fall. And with that stupid moral compass of hers, Rodney was convinced that he'd have to argue some more, maybe do an end run around her altogether, but before he could start she laid a hand on his arm. "You're right. I won't lose any of you. We might not be who we were anymore, but at least we'll still be. I've been thinking… well, we'll discuss that later, when we're all here again."

Making John again was surprisingly easy. Looking him in the eyes when he woke up, newborn and already cranky, was much harder.

John was still a little weak from the process, which Rodney figured gave him a fighting chance if things came to blows, or at least he could outrun him, but all John did was sigh. "I didn't want this."

Rodney was prepared to argue again. To say all the things he'd said to Elizabeth. To say all the things he'd told himself, but words were never the best way to win an argument with John, so he just kissed him instead.

Angry as John might be, the kiss only ended when Elizabeth politely coughed, a tiny smirk on her face when they both blushed a little. "It was both our decisions, John. I… "

Rodney used the deviously simple ploy of appealing to John's protective nature. "I want this, John. I need it. Don't take it from me."

This shut John down fast. He looked over at Elizabeth, apparently testing her resolve, but saw only determination there. He quirked his lips at her. "Brave new world, huh?"

The intent look on her face washed away, replaced with amusement. "Yes. Though that would make you Ariel, since we freed you from the cloven pine, as it were."

John nodded, but didn't say anything else. He took Rodney's hand, though, allowing that to be his answer.

"John." And nothing else, because nothing more needed to be said.

Elizabeth said nothing else, because as far as Rodney could see, nothing more needed to be said. This was their life now, and the old rules didn't apply anymore. He pulled John closer, taking in the warmth that he'd only been able to remember before.

John asked, "Did I miss it?"

And of course he would know what day it was, even though he'd died almost a week before. Like Elizabeth who'd expected him that morning, John knew him too well. Rodney laughed, a little too high-pitched, hysteria threatening now that the wait was over. "No. There're still two hours left before my birthday is over."

The kiss John gave him was even better than the last, acceptance and desire like sugar on his tongue. They didn't even break it off as Elizabeth cleared her throat again, saying, "Well, I'll just be leaving then. Not that this isn't fun, but there are things about your sex life that I don't want to know."

She paused at the doorway, though, winking at them as they came up for air. "Not _too_ much, anyway."

The beds in the infirmary were too small for what Rodney had in mind, but John wouldn't let go long enough for him to say so. With John's hands burrowing under his shirt, pushing down into his pants, Rodney lost any thought but here and now.

But John's frantic kisses slowed, and he laid back, arms tight around Rodney, keeping him in place, half on him, half off the bed. John's eyes were laughing as he said, "Two hours, huh? We'll have to make the most of that. And seeing as I don't know what happened to the gift I got you, I'll have to find something else that you'll like."

John pulled Rodney so that he was all on the bed, laid out along John's length, bucking up against him so that Rodney could feel his erection pressing along his hip. "You can have anything of me you want. Any way you want it."

"You're the master of thoughtful gifts." Not that it would have mattered to Rodney. Just having John back was the best thing he could have hoped for, but having him back and open to him… turning forty really was much better than he'd thought it would be. "What if I ask for something that you don’t want to give? You going to freak out on me?"

Not that Rodney was planning on it, but John was curiously hesitant about some things, and they'd both learned where the others' limits were long ago.

But John just looked thoughtful at that, or as thoughtful as he could look while he was kneading Rodney's ass. "I don't think so. None of those things… well, I guess nothing's really ever happened to me." He slapped Rodney on the back of the head. "In fact, you should be ashamed of yourself. Here you are, a forty-year-old guy, and me a newborn virgin, and you're already planning to deflower me."

Rodney laughed, his hands busy getting rid of anything separating flesh from flesh. "Hey, you only turn forty once. Or maybe not in our case.”

And John still wasn't happy about that, but Rodney knew how to distract, his hands combing through chest hair, circling the nipples that peeked through it. His cock grinding against John's as he reached to get the aloe gel on the medicine cart nearby. His fingers slick as they entered John, his tongue slick as he licked his way down John's throat, for once not even complaining about what the position was doing to his back.

John wasn't complaining either, head thrown back to bare his throat, knees drawn back to take Rodney in. There wasn't time for complaint, anyway, both of them too close, something besides desire fueling their need.

Maybe their lives were different now. Maybe it was a brave new world. But Rodney remembered this. Remembered the way that John felt beneath him, tightening around him as he came. He remembered the rush of his own release, and the feel of John rolling them over, so that they were lying side by side on a bed not really meant to hold two grown men.

Rodney also remembered what John had done last year. It was the _first_ John that had done it, the one that one belonged to the first Rodney, but _this_ one, that he could feel the heat from, that he could touch and hold, this one was the one that counted. And the one that had had the audacity to die on him. So instead of getting his own revenge for the previous year, Rodney pulled John closer. "Don't go. Don't leave me."

He knew John hated the idea of them becoming something other than what they'd been. Of losing himself the same way he'd lost the life he'd known. But he also knew that John wouldn't have been anywhere near rational if the situation had been reversed.

As if thinking the same thought, John held Rodney just as tightly, fingers gripping hard enough that there would be bruises the next morning. "All right. I won't."

It was as good a promise as Rodney could hope for, and he knew John would do his best to keep it. It was a comforting thought.

Then things went the way they normally did between them, with John teasing him about being old, and refractory rates, and having to entertain himself since there wasn't any Viagra out in this part of the Pegasus galaxy, and Rodney arguing that John's body was still older, even if it had been around less time, the argument giving way to John's mouth on Rodney's cock, and Rodney's hand on John's, and both of them needing to sleep when it was over.

The bed was still too small, and it was a little damp, and Rodney knew his back would regret it when he woke up, but he was too tired to care. And maybe he dreamed John telling him, "Happy Birthday, Rodney… and many more," but it didn't matter, because all that mattered was John that was alive and with him.

Forty years wasn't much time for a life. Not really. But Rodney knew it was just the beginning.

 

/story


End file.
